What is the chemical process of hydraulic fracking? How does fracking affect the environment, specifically waterways and human health?

Hydraulic fracking (fracking) is a process used to produce oil and natural gas by drilling down into the earth and pushing a high pressure water, sand and chemical mixture into sedimentary rocks, which causes them to crack and allows shale gas to be extracted. The water mixture contains chemicals, such as acids like hydrochloric acid, which helps dissolve the rock so that the gas can be extracted more easily. Once they are done, the waste water is dumped deep beneath the ground. It’s estimated that 1.5-16 million gallons of water are used for a single fracking well.

Fracking does a lot of damage to the environment in multiple different ways. Drilling into rock formations and dumping thousands of gallons of wastewater into the ground puts pressure on the faults and cause them to move which can trigger earthquakes. Since fracking began in Oklahoma, there has been a 900% increase in earthquakes in the state, where there is now an average of two earthquakes per day.

Fracking generates air pollution, when gas and other chemicals extracted leak out from wells. Waterways and ecosystems can also be contaminated when waste water is dumped below ground and moves through semi permeable rocks into aquifers and into waterways. Due to these negative effects, provinces like Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador have temporally banned fracking until the health and environmental consequences are fully understood.

These environmental contaminates could affect people in nearby communities and increase risks for cancer, neurological problems and birth defects. In view of these concerns and growing evidence about the risks, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) have called on the federal government to completely ban fracking in Canada.    

Sources used:

April 19, 2019 Melissa Denchak. “Fracking 101.” NRDC, 4 Nov. 2020, www.nrdc.org/stories/fracking-101#whatis  

“Do Fracking Activities Cause Earthquakes?” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/do-fracking-activities-cause-earthquakes-1.3556524  

Vogel, Lauren. “Fracking Tied to Cancer-Causing Chemicals.” CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'Association Medicale Canadienne, Joule Inc., 16 Jan. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5235941/